"When God devised the great plan of salvation by grace; when he gave his own Son to die as the Substitute for guilty men; when he proclaimed that whosoever believed in Jesus Christ should have everlasting life; you would have thought that everybody would have been glad to hear such good news, and that they would all have hastened to believe it. Christ is so suitable to the sinner. Why does not the sinner accept him? The way of salvation is so simple, so suitable to guilty men, it is altogether so glorious, so grand, that if we did not know the depravity of the human heart, we should expect that every sinner would at once believe the gospel, and receive its boons. But, alas, some have not believed!"
- C H Spurgeon, sermon "God justified, though man believes not"
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
"Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ" - John Piper
"The apex of the glory of Christ is the glory of His grace – treating people infinitely better than they deserve – giving Himself for the everlasting joy of the worst of sinners who will have Him as their Treasure. And the apex of His grace is the murder of the God-man outside Jerusalemaround A.D. 33. The death of Jesus Christ was murder. It was the most spectacular sin ever committed.
At the all-important pivot of the human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God's grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.
Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That's the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put His glory on display – the very glory that they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace."
- John Piper, Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/80/
At the all-important pivot of the human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God's grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.
Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That's the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put His glory on display – the very glory that they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace."
- John Piper, Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/80/
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